About Us

The Open Road Project exists to spread kindness and meet the needs of strangers. We travel in a 1979 GMC Vanguard named Lily. These are our stories.

Friday, July 22, 2011

And Now We Drive: Day 1 & 2

On Thursday morning, we departed from Camp Crossroads for the first official leg of our cross Canada journey. The 15 hour stretch from Muskoka to Thunder Bay would be the first real test to our RV, and the first indicator of what our new lives on the road were going to look like. We decided to set up camp in Sault St Marie. Where else better than a Wal-Mart parking lot? After we set up a pretty decent camp outside our RV in the back corner in the lot, we fired up the generator and played a little bit of hoop on the side of our RV (thanks to Charles for an amazing job installing the basketball net). Of course our lawn chairs and Coleman grill also marked our territory. Our first night together in the RV proved to be encouraging. Everyone slept great, and despite it’s claustrophobic appearance, it sleeps the five of us very comfortably. We were up at the crack of dawn Friday morning to finish the drive to Thunder Bay. Even in the early stages of the trip, there are a few things that we have learned about the Open Road.

First, honk at every other RV, truck and construction worker. There is only one rule to honking: you can never honk too much.

Second, while driving the backcountry of northern Ontario enjoy the beautiful scenery and if anything vaguely or potentially like a moose, it definitely was a moose. Do not let anyone tell you otherwise.

Third, Things will spill. Deal with it (Grandma Koops cushions already have a little Dawn dish soap, coffee and Gatorade to add character and aroma).

The fourth little thing we learned in the first few days of our road trip is that if you know the lyrics to a song, your going to sing along. I mean we didn’t hook our ride up with 1000watts of power, some nice new 6X9’s, new tweeters and a 10” woofer just to hum along.